This guide will help you formulate a digital strategy that balances strategic impact with implementation concerns for your advancement organization.
57+
Just as the business needs for university advancement present uniquely on every campus, a solution that’s right for any given institution and its advancement organization will vary according to the institution’s needs, capacity, finances, and skillset. But determining what’s right for the institution is not simple; the advancement technology solution marketplace is evolving rapidly, and its continued pace of change has made development of a shared language for services difficult to establish.
Use the Advancement Forum’s Navigating the Advancement Technology Vendor Landscape guide to help you make sense of the landscape. This guide pulls together key facts and findings about advancement technology vendors encountered during Advancement Forum research conversations.
Tools to help you evaluate advancement technology products
Use this diagnostic to evaluate and prioritize tech products across functional areas.
Centralized Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) platforms often serve as the database of record for all prospects, with the ability to house data on nearly every aspect of their relationship with this institution. Read about nine primary providers.
Dedicated online giving solutions typically provide end-to-end capability for web-based giving, formal giving days, and even some tools for organic crowdfunding campaigns on campus. Read about 11 primary providers and 12 secondary providers.
Comprehensive online marketing automation platforms offer features such as mass personalization (e.g. email and web journeys) as well as social media management tools. Read about five primary providers and 14 secondary providers.
Specialized technology solutions enabling communications campaigns that go beyond crowded email marketing channels are becoming widely used in university advancement. Read about 11 primary providers and 22 secondary providers.
These tools integrate with internal and external data sources, allowing users to extract insights from a broader set of constituent data to plan fundraising strategy. Read about nine primary providers and 23 secondary providers.
Fundraiser Workflow Management tools typically provide capabilities such as self-serve access to information and advanced workflow management tools for frontline fundraisers. Read about the two primary providers and 11 secondary providers.
These tools are offered as standalone solutions, but more comprehensive technology platforms may also directly update wealth data housed in constituent profiles. Read about four primary providers and four secondary providers.
These platforms typically operate as exclusive social networking platforms which give advancement staff the ability to collect alumni data, push engagement opportunities, analyze trends, and maintain a greater degree of institutional control over the digital alumni community. Learn about six primary providers and 13 secondary providers.
This guide provides sample questions to help you build your own institution-specific request for information (RFI).
While not meant as recommendations or endorsements, these profiles provide an overview of the vendors and their products, as well as information regarding their users within higher education.
“Figure out your business strategy before you invest in anything. Leaders who aim to enhance organizational performance through the use of digital technologies often have a specific tool in mind.”
Benham Tabrizi, et al.
“Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology”
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the tool
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Advancement Advisory Services.
Learn More